We lock our houses, our cars, even our bicycles. But do we secure our company's information? Small businesses need to be aware that some networks don't even come with locks installed, much less any other type of protection. How secure is your company's most confidential data? Would your network withstand a hacker, a virus attack or a disgruntled employee?

If you access the Internet for only a couple of minutes a day the likelihood of your being 'hacked' is small. Why? Because each time you logon you are issued with a new 'identity number' (IP address) Hackers access networks through IP addresses. If your IP address is constantly changing, it is difficult for a hacker to locate your IP address quick enough while you are surfing, and get into your system.

However, the same cannot be said of some viruses. They infect unprotected systems, which in turn 'scan' around looking for other systems to infect. If your unlucky and happen to be online while a system scans your IP address a virus could be transferred to your system, leaving you wondering what happened.

Why a hacker would want to enter your system is anybody's guess. Some are merely curious and see hacking as a challenge. Others will hack your network with the intent to cause untold malicious damage or worse, steal valuable or confidential data.

With a permanent link to the Internet, i.e. ADSL line it is critical that you protect your system. Having a permanent link to the web is time saving and often more cost effective. But it opens up a very real danger of being hacked.

Not installing a Firewall is like leaving your front door wide open at night. It is inviting crooks to enter your premises. The equivalent to a locked and bolted front and back door - in computer terms - is a firewall.

The MLR Appliance Firewall is a Stateful Firewall based on a Linux Operating System .

Called "stateful" because the firewall can permit outgoing sessions while denying incoming. This kind of firewall inspects all packets going through the firewall. Packets are only forwarded if they match an access policy rule

It simply ignores any connections unless they're in the access rules (Thus preventing unauthorized access). It also has a connection tracking system that only lets in traffic replying to a request from inside the system.

In other words - A stateful Firewall is like having a security guard that checks people coming in have an appointment and are also sent through a metal detector to check nothing untoward has come in with them.

One of the benefits of renting a Firewall from us is that we keep a constant eye on new developments and update the Firewall regularly. This is essential as hackers and viruses are becoming more advanced. Security updates to your system are made on average every 3 months. A service not provided by an off the shelf firewall.

Secure Remote Management and Support. If you take up the ADSL option and become a member of the MLR support system then your IT network can be supported over the web via remote control software using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.

This is like having a virtual engineer on site. The VPN allows the engineer to view and take control of your PCs whilst speaking to the user, giving you the benefit of faster response to 90% of your PC problems and minimizing lost productivity time from users.

With MLR Appliance Firewall viruses are stopped before they enter your network. A lot of our clients ask us how they can prevent viruses getting into their system via email. At present most companies check their incoming mail with antivirus software on their server or desktop. This was fine until virus's started attacking the antivirus software first, disabling or removing it.

MLR Appliance Firewall will check incoming mail on the Firewall. Ensuring that viruses and trojans (used by hackers to get in) are stopped before they come anywhere near your network, and outbound mail so that you do not compromise your business standing, all this is included in the package price with updates every 5 minutes at our central servers from Sophos.

According to the Institute of Directors "The traditional office, as it is viewed in 2000, will have come to be seem by many companies as an outdated concept that has been held on to for far too long, and that by 2010 , 10% of the FTSE 100 companies will have no headquarters ". They predict that 25% will be working from home.

According to the 2000 government labour force survey 1.5Million or 5.5% of the workforce already work from home at least one day per week using a computer linked to their employer or clients office. This is a 19% increase on the previous year.

This is great for FTSE 100 companies with their FTSE 100 budgets. It costs the AA £7000 to rig up an employee with a PC and communications links plus the running costs. However with a home ADSL and an MLR Appliance Firewall we can make it more affordable for the small business.

Even more surprisingly, according to the AA their home workers do 30-40% more work than their office staff. Surprising isn't it?

Secure Remote Connection for Single offsite Users. MLR Appliance Firewall has an IPSec VPN option. This is industry standard VPN security system allowing secure cross platform connections.

Translated, this means your 2000/XP laptop can access your office network and server from any direct Internet connection anywhere, after the IPSec client software is installed. There is a reduction in actual data transferred, as the coding uses some of the available bandwidth (or speed) so for permanent connections e.g. home use, we recommend ADSL. Its slightly slower than the office connection but still very usable

Applications for this are endless. Roaming Sales persons, consultants working on clients sites, staff stuck at home due to weather or strikes. All can have access to their files, email etc.